With the aid of officers from the Ministry of Public Security, anti-environmental crime police in Binh Duong Province have raided two local farms that were illegally raising wild animals from endangered species that need to be protected from extinction.

The farms, which are located in Cay San Hamlet, Lai Uyen Commune, Ben Cat District, are owned by a few of officials from the province, according to a Tuoi Tre investigation.

On Wednesday morning a joint police team conducted the first inspection on a farm that is managed by a woman named Nguyen Thi Diep Hong, who said the farm is owned by Nguyen Van Long, who “was once a member of the Ben Luc District People’s Council.”

The team was accompanied by a number of officers from the provincial forest protection sub-department, the Southern Ecological Institute and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Critically endangered species

While searching the farm, inspectors found six gibbons belonging to Group IB, which includes endangered and critically endangered species, held in cages.

Exploitation and use of these species for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited, and a permit is required for scientific research and conservation purposes, inspectors said.

The team reported and seized the six live gibbons, as well as a live peacock and a stuffed gibbon specimen.

These gibbons include one from the Hylobates pileatus species, which can be imported only when a license from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is obtained, said Dr Hoang Minh Duc, deputy head of the Southern Ecological Institute.

Hong asked the team for to allow her to keep the peacock at the farm, but her request was rejected. More....